NSTA’s K-College January 2016 Science Education Journals Online

Looking for ways to engage preschool students in physical science? Are your students curious as to how animals communicate and make decisions? Want to expand your students interest in engineering? Looking for new ways for undergraduate teaching assistants to work with college students in entry-level STEM courses? The January K–College journals from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have the answers you need. Written by science teachers for science teachers, these peer-reviewed journals are targeted to your teaching level and are packed with lesson plans, expert advice, and ideas for using whatever time/space you have available. Browse the January issues; they are online (see below), in members’ mailboxes, and ready to inspire teachers!

Science and Children

Starting in preschool, teachers can engage students in physical science through creative, hands-on lessons. This issue of S&C delves into physical science lessons that involve derby cars, UV-sensitive lizards, and more.

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):

New Caledonian crows are master tool makers and users. They have even been known to stash their favorite tools in the hollows of trees so they can be retrieved and reused for another meal. Check out this issue’s Tried and True column for a crow-foraging activity that is sure to engage and inform your students as they explore animal communication, cooperation, and decision-making.

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):

Science is all about asking questions and constructing explanations, while engineering focuses on defining problems and designing solutions. Think of science as the quest for timeless truths and engineering as the search for design solutions to problems rooted in a particular time and situation. To be sure, there is overlap. Scientists often must complete engineering tasks such as designing experimental apparatus and testing prototypes, and engineers sometimes explore new phenomena and develop scientific models. In our schools we need to educate students about engineering careers, especially our young women, who are dramatically underrepresented in engineering fields. We cannot waste precious human capital by creating another generation of students who can say, “I have no idea what an engineer is.”

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):

Read about a study that investigated the learning gap between students with strong prerequisite skills and students with weak prerequisite skills and concluded that these skills are critical to subsequent learning. See the Research and Teaching article that examines the development of peer mentoring skills and deepening of content knowledge by trained undergraduate teaching assist
ants working with students in entry-level STEM courses. And don’t miss the Case Study that looks at a flipped classroom approach in which students both produce and watch videos in preparation for class.

Featured articles (please note, only those marked “free” are available to nonmembers without a fee):